On Sunday morning the Terry Fox run in Grande Prairie will be happening in Muskoseepi Park.
Organizer for the Grande Prairie event Judy Tremblay says this year they are hoping to see 300 participants, who can run as much or as little as they want.
“Typically they are 10 kilometres, but lots of folks just do one kilometre, they can walk up and over the reservoir three times which makes 10 kilometres.”
This year is the 43rd anniversary of the Marathon of Hope, which started with Terry Fox’s goal of jogging across Canada to raise funds for cancer research. Fox ran for 143 day straight, jogging roughly 42 kilometers a day, before his leg cancer spread to his lungs. Tremblay explains 43 years ago Fox was forced to stop running on September 1st.
“They started this run in essence to keep running for Terry, so the third Sunday of September across Canada – is dedicated to Terry and finishing what he couldn’t finish.”
During the 143 days Fox ran the Marathon of Hope, he raised more than $27 million for cancer research and in the years since the Terry Fox Foundation has raised more than $850 million for cancer research.
The Grande Prairie run will start at 10:40 a.m. Sunday September 17th at Muskoseepi Park.